KYIV (Reuters) -- Ukraine said on
Monday it had driven Russian forces from an eighth village in its two-week-old counteroffensive, a settlement on a heavily fortified part of the front line near the most direct route to the country’s Azov Sea coast.
A Russian-installed official said on Sunday that Ukraine had taken control of the village, Piatykhatky, in the southern Zaporizhzhia region. He later said Moscow had pushed them out and on Monday morning he said Ukraine was attacking again.
Ukraine’s Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said Ukrainian forces had not only retaken Piatykhatky but had advanced by up to seven km (4.3 miles) into Russian lines in two weeks, capturing 113 square km (44 square miles) of land.
“In the course of two weeks of offensive operations in the Berdiansk and Melitopol directions, eight settlements were liberated,” Maliar said on Telegram, referring to two cities on the Russian-occupied coastline.
The reported capture of the villages reflects incremental gains for Ukraine that highlight the challenge of breaking through lines Moscow has spent months strengthening. Piatykhatky is significant, however, as lies around 90 km from the coast.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he would continue talks with Western allies to get weapons and ammunition supplies to them as soon as possible.
On Monday, the Russian Defense Ministry said its forces had thwarted a Ukrainian attempt to take the village of Novodonetske in the eastern Donetsk region, another area where Kyiv’s counteroffensive has been focused.
It released a video showing what a soldier heard talking in it said was a captured French-made tank.
Ukraine has acknowledged attacks along several parts of the 1,000 km front line in its long-anticipated counteroffensive to retake the 18% of its territory occupied by Russia.
But Kyiv has imposed an information blackout on current and future battles for security reasons. Analysts say the main phase of the counteroffensive is yet to begin.
Both sides appear to have taken heavy losses in recent fighting and both say they have lost fewer troops than their foes.
“The enemy’s ‘wave-like’ offensives yielded results, despite enormous losses,” Russian-installed official Vladimir Rogov said on Telegram in reporting the Piatykhatky fighting.
The conflict has killed thousands of civilians, destroyed towns and cities and driven millions of people from their homes as well as exacerbating global inflation and reshaping security.